Salt away

[gungadin]

Had a friends boat over for some repairs/ maintenance and the instalation of a washdown pump. Part of the maintenace was the replacing the four engine internal anodes (225 Yamaha). We noticed some build up of salt residue buth on the engine block and the anodes. He expressed his concern about the pressence of the salt, and how to get rid of it. Now he is carefull about flushing his engine after every trip, about 20 min of water running through it. We thought that we might try a product called salt away a product I have seen locally. Does any one have any thoughts on it -- pro or con? Or another method of flushing out the system?

 

[abbyfireguy]

Started using it a couple of years ago. Seems to work well if you remember to use it.

 

[spring fever]

I use it every other trip and before I put her to bed for the winter- It seems to help. I also keep a hand spray bottle with a water salt-away mix to spray on the engine when the cowl is off-gets all the salt out of those hard to reach places. My engine is 10 years old and under the cowl it looks like the day I got it.

 

[Fish Assassin]

I use it a couple times a year.... And leave it in the system over night.

 

[mhbradley]

Can this product be used on reels and such?

My friend has some on his boat, but I wasn't sure if I should be spraying on my reels / rods....

 

[Fish Assassin]

Funny you bring that up..... When it goes thru my motors I have been known to let it run down over my reels. Doesn't hurt them.

 

[spring fever]

Like FA I just hold my gear in the tell-tale.-foams all over the reels and seats-I never see any salt build up and had no other chemical like issues that might make me stop doing it. I also put it through the brake flushing system

 

[Canso]

I started using it a couple years ago on snow removal equipment, and it works great.
It also has a rust inhibitor, so no need to rinse off.
You can buy 1 gallon concentrate and mix 500:1
Or get a garden hose mixer that mixes while your washing and flushing your boat.

 

[myknoo]

use it on my boats==also have a mixture in a pail onboard and all flashers & gear get the soak before getting put away.
also have some in a spray bottle for the downriggers & reels -spray everyday before taking them off.

 

[MRACER]

WHERE do you obtain the 1 gallon concentrate? thanks

I started using it a couple years ago on snow removal equipment, and it works great.
It also has a rust inhibitor, so no need to rinse off.
You can buy 1 gallon concentrate and mix 500:1
Or get a garden hose mixer that mixes while your washing and flushing your boat.

 

[gungadin]

Thank you all so much for all the responses, not a negative one amongst them. Seems to be a good product. I will pick some up this week. Don't know if ocean pacific has the concentrate, MRACER, I just saw the containers while standing in line to pay during their marine show on Saturday and didn't pay much attention.

 

[TenMile]

You can also make your own variant of Salt-Away. Make a jug of concentrated white vinegar with a tablespoon of dish or auto soap and use that in the salt-away garden hose sprayer. It will remove the salt deposits just as well. Compare the cost of a jug of vinegar vs Salt-Away and soap...

 

[eaglemaniac]

Hey TenMile what is the recipe of that concentrate? Is it just straight vinegar and the dish soap? Thanks. eman

 

[TenMile]

Hey eman,

Here is a recipe I posted here a few years ago. If you are using the garden hose sprayer that comes with Salt Away, then there is no real need to dilute it. You can dilute it if you want to use from a spray bottle -- note that I stole this recipe from another site -- and copied his recipe word for word.

It turns out that the key ingredient is Sulfamic Acid (<5%)....an inorganic acid. The stuff is used for descaling crud in industrial piping, in lots of manufacturing processes, a number of cleaning applications, and for rust removal. Since it doesn't have chlorine it is used on stainless steel. It is sold as a solid as well as a liquid. If one knew the concentration used in the Saltaway product (so the dilution mix would dispense at the right concentration for use) I guess a little blue dye and some detergent would be all that was needed to make up some homebrew.

Household products that contain Sulfamic Acid can be found here:
http://hpd.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/house...bl=chem&id=137

Zep Shower and Tile Cleaner matches the same concentration (roughly) as Salt-Away and can be found at Home Depot for $9.99.

Household Vinegar can be substituted and has similar chemical properties when diluted.


My mix for the vinegar flush is two large bottles (one quart) of white vinegar in a bucket containing 2 quarts of tap water, if not hard, or distilled water in the gallon jug at your local market. Add 20 drops of Lemon Joy liquid dish detergent (I like the smell of lemon).

Stir or whirl, until mixed but not sudsy. I use distilled water so I have a convenient jug and being mineral free, don't get parcipitants at the bottom of the container. If you want, add blue food coloring until a light blue color. This helps when mixing with water during the engine flush.

I have a Groco fresh water flush valve on my engine so I install the pick up hose, place the open end in a 5 gallon paint bucket filled with water and run the engine until warm (165 degrees). Once engine is at operating temp, I mix a quart of the vinegar solution into a half bucket of water and continue to run the engine until all the blue is gone. Run two minutes more to remove soap and scale in the engine then shut down.

Vinegar is only a 3% acetic acid solution. If one leaves the mix in the engine between uses it shouldn't damage the engine as it will be only about a .2-.5% solution after being diluted during the ingestion and acetic acid is not a highly corrosive acid like HCL or H2SO4. I can make about 10 gallons for what Salt Away charges for one quart.

By the way, I use this same solution to clean reels and wash down the boat about once a month during salt water use, just dilute by 50%. It removes water spots, salt, and other grime gently.

 

[eaglemaniac]

Thanks TenMile, great info. eman

 

[Fish Assassin]

That's awesome... Thanks TenMile,

 

[fshnfnatic]

Thank for that info,TenMile.I,m gonna give er a try!